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What is the Greatest Work of Philosophy You Have Ever Read?

Like many people who have replied I find the translation rule unnecesarily restrictive. That said two things strike me about most of the responses.

1. The amount of information a person can obtain about another person simply by the books they find good is at once astonishing and disconcerting.

2. Almost every book written is in some way a philosphical work by the author.

Those two points stated and with the unnecessary restrictions of translation intact I submit the following.

1. On Liberty by J.S. Mill
2. Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
3. Araby by James Joyce
4. Henry the V by William Shakespeare
5. Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning
6. Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram

Special mention to Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil but there is some question as to whether she wrote that in English or German originally.
 
Like a few of the other readers here, I can't help but see your insistence on filtering this discussion (on important works of philosophy read) through the lens of an original language as an oddity of sorts, but to play your game, I count JS MILL's work on Liberty as great - on account of his recognition of the limits and dangers inherent in majority politics and for his passionate and principled defense of individual liberty.
 
yes it is all about sayin smthg or sayin urself
who can b objective is useful who so subject, individual right

who use word and breath and others present reality to b more himself livin, is useless being wrong

so we have issue here as u see, some are rights and u r wrong forever
 
that is why it is been in the wind a word like sayin kill urselves if u want to act consciously useful at the end

i belong to the kind who the wind held another word for, sayin defend urself and force urself on everyone and everythin u have no right to die

so again u see the issue here is real

some are born to b and others are born to die

u must realize ur death as i must realize my life
 
absols said:
that is why it is been in the wind a word like sayin kill urselves if u want to act consciously useful at the end

i belong to the kind who the wind held another word for, sayin defend urself and force urself on everyone and everythin u have no right to die

so again u see the issue here is real

some are born to b and others are born to
u must realize ur death as i must realize my life
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meh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
RabidAlpaca said:
I got a decent way through Also Sprach Zarathustra in its original German, and I know that it was making fun of the bible, but I still felt like I was reading the bible, so I stopped. I'm a big fan of Nietschian philosophy though.
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Nietzsche was an adolescense thing for me. I remember once, I was thrown out of the German class in my high school by the teacher, when I read Nietzsche instead of following the lessons, which I considered unnecessary, as she was explaining for the, like, 20th time how to write an "Erörterung" (argument paper considering pros and cons of a topic), which I had understood the first time already.

Nietzsche's witty mix of eloquence, disdain for human stupidity and codescending attitude was just the right thing when I was 17 and hating the entire world.

Now, several years later, I think Nietzsche was a really poor ****, and except really looking cool when bashing others, was as far from finding a useful idea about living a good life as you can get.
 
o really and who cares about ur schoolyard stories here ???
wat is the conclusion of ur posts ??/ u hate and love and enjoy
how r u learnin from mistaken attitude ??? anyway im sure u cant even define the word mistake
while u preach about that subject as if it is all u know and really all is about it, joinin god and conscious beings only by mistakes
wat a theory u invent
now cmon define mistake
 
German guy said:
Nietzsche was an adolescense thing for me. I remember once, I was thrown out of the German class in my high school by the teacher, when I read Nietzsche instead of following the lessons, which I considered unnecessary, as she was explaining for the, like, 20th time how to write an "Erörterung" (argument paper considering pros and cons of a topic), which I had understood the first time already.

Nietzsche's witty mix of eloquence, disdain for human stupidity and codescending attitude was just the right thing when I was 17 and hating the entire world.

Now, several years later, I think Nietzsche was a really poor ****, and except really looking cool when bashing others, was as far from finding a useful idea about living a good life as you can get.
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"Nietzsche's witty mix of eloquence, disdain for human stupidity and codescending attitude [...]" = "[...] a useful idea about living a good life as you can get."
 
God and The Astronomers - Robert Jastrow
Evolution From Space - Fred Hoyle & Chandra Wickramasinghe
Superforce - Paul Davies
Worlds in Collision - Immanuel Velikovsky
On The Origins of The Species - Charles Darwin
Time Frames Niles Eldredge
Book of The Hopi Frank Waters
 
hfd said:
God and The Astronomers - Robert Jastrow
Evolution From Space - Fred Hoyle & Chandra Wickramasinghe
Superforce - Paul Davies
Worlds in Collision - Immanuel Velikovsky
On The Origins of The Species - Charles Darwin
Time Frames Niles Eldredge
Book of The Hopi Frank Waters
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I wouldn't say that's a work of Philosophy - unless you read Ray Comfort's version.
 
I agree with Ruse...

"In particular, I argue that in both evolution and creation we have rival religious responses to a crisis of faith—rival stories of origins, rival judgments about the meaning of human life, rival sets of moral dictates, and above all what theologians call rival eschatologies—pictures of the future and of what lies ahead for humankind."

Ruse, Michael The Evolution-Creation Struggle (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), p. 3
Philosophy of biology
Florida State University

The following seemingly supports his view.

"Evolution is the greatest engine of atheism ever invented. Naturalistic evolution has clear consequences that Charles Darwin understood perfectly. 1) No gods worth having exist; 2) no life after death exists; 3) no ultimate foundation for ethics exists; 4) no ultimate meaning in life exists; and 5) human free will is nonexistent. "

Provine, William - 'Evolution: Free will and punishment and meaning in life' 1998 Darwin Day Keynote Address.
Ph.D. University of Chicago
Professor of Biological Sciences
Cornell University
 
"Origin of the species" is the most famous book in the world in which almost nobody has really read. Gotta be a genius super geek to make it though that one.:mrgreen:
 
"All you need is love"-The Beatles

...damn, can't say this with a straight face.

I can't remember the names of the philosophic works i've read :(

I like stuff that C.S. Lewis wrote.
 
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Guy Incognito said:
Please list the great work of philosophy you have ever personally read. Two rules, it must be something you have personally read in its entirety and it must not be a translation (you must have read it in its original language).

Thanks! I'm looking forward to what everybody has to say.
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Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra and Jenseits von Gut und Böse. As far as Western culture goes, Nietzsche made all previous philosophy as good as obsolete. The only way his predecessors could reclaim relevance is if they would be resurrected and be offered the possibility of answering to Nietzsche's arguments.

While in essence I agree that one hasn't truly read a philosopher until one has read his or her works in the original language, it would require a superhuman effort to be consistent in this. Merely being able to read a language isn't enough. It also requires a deep understanding of the culture in which the work originated. This is at most possible for two, maybe three languages.
 
Mach said:
Some influential ones:

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB) - Douglas Hofstadter
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Lovely book that, although I wouldn't call it philosophy.
 
Woi said:
Lovely book that, although I wouldn't call it philosophy.
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Yet GEB is about fundamental problems of intelligence, reason, mind, knowledge, and approaches them mathematically (i.e. rationally). Looking up the definition:

Philosophy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.[1][2] Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.[3]
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Looks and walks like a duck.
 
Mach said:
Yet GEB is about fundamental problems of intelligence, reason, mind, knowledge, and approaches them mathematically (i.e. rationally). Looking up the definition:

Philosophy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Looks and walks like a duck.
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Yes, GEB approaches the issues in the book mathematically and that's exactly why it would call it, well, borderline philosophical at most. The methods and techniques of philosophy are much less 'strongly typed' (to stay in GEB jargon). Philosophy is dependent upon linguistic and thus cultural context while works such as GEB that rely mostly on propositional logic aren't.
 
LiberalAvenger said:
"Origin of the species" is the most famous book in the world in which almost nobody has really read. Gotta be a genius super geek to make it though that one.:mrgreen:
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I have to disagree with you, I think War and Peace is pretty much just as famous and read even less. I've read origin of species and thought it a great book. Ive tried War and peace but after 3 pages I get all confused with Russian names that are 30 letters long with consanants that just should neve ever be next to each other and are 3 letters different from another name that is a compeltely different character, very confusing. Add to that the length of the book and most peopel never even try. (had same problem with the Silmarilion and the names)

As to the OP
Stranger in a strange land - Robert Heinlan
Erwehon - Samuel Butler
Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes
La Peste (The plague) - Albert Camus (If you have never heard of this one its definetly worth a read, L'Étranger (The Stranger) as well)
Du contrat social (The social contract) - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Sorry I dont read german just english and french
 
Guy Incognito said:
Please list the great work of philosophy you have ever personally read. Two rules, it must be something you have personally read in its entirety and it must not be a translation (you must have read it in its original language).

Thanks! I'm looking forward to what everybody has to say.
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Good question. The Dialogues by Plato. Translated ito English.
 
When It was Dark by Guy Thorne. Talk about my "promised land."
 
I have read stories of many philosopher.They are inspire us to how we should live our life.
We can know what is facts and lies in our life.What is wrong and right? We can improve our knowledge about hows going our life happily.
 
Guy Incognito said:
Please list the great work of philosophy you have ever personally read. Two rules, it must be something you have personally read in its entirety and it must not be a translation (you must have read it in its original language).

Thanks! I'm looking forward to what everybody has to say.
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Well, if I am to stick to the rules.

Alfred North Whitehead Process and Reality, Adventures of Ideas

If I bend the rules

Paul Tillich The Courage To Be

If I break the rules
Anything by Spinoza or Kierkegaard
 
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